


On the Doorstep

by edencomplex



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Bak Chang gets his first taste of life outside the war since he was born, Disgustingly self-indulgent happy ending in a universe where there probably won’t be a happy ending, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, Future Fic, M/M, Post-Series, and Komui Lee would appreciate the quiet life more if the general store actually stocked good coffee, in which Lenalee Lee wants her brother to stop being a self-sacrificial ass and just be HAPPY, the war and what came after
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 03:55:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5990860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edencomplex/pseuds/edencomplex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Komui had never considered leaving the Order with more than what he had come for in the first place; his sister.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is **safe for work** , but just a head's up that the next chapter is a **PWP** set in the same post-war timeline.

“What on earth have you been doing to yourself?” Bak muttered, raking his fingers through Komui’s sweaty hair.

“It’s called a tan, Bak-chan,” Komui retorted from somewhere under his chin. He was mouthing kisses against the pale flesh like a punch-drunk man.

They’d nearly broken the door down in their haste to get to a surface much more softer and forgiving than the pile of dirt and leaves Komui had landed in when Bak, after furiously slapping him across the face, had kissed him so hard Komui thought his soul would leave his body.  

“I know what a tan is,” Bak snapped, though he continued to run his fingertips across Komui’s skin like he couldn’t believe his eyes. “ _I tan_! I’m asking how you did it!”

“You burn,” Komui said, in all honesty quite content to stay where he was, his nose pressed against Bak’s collarbone, for the rest of the afternoon. “Like a shrimp on a grill. And I was gardening,” he added, when Bak looked ready to argue.

“You _garden_?”

“I like gardening,” Komui said loftily. “It’s _relaxing_.”

“You made me search all of China,” Bak grumbled, his lips on Komui’s forehead now, “while you were in fucking Guilin this entire time. _Gardening_.”

“You should try it sometime,” Komui pointed out, stretched out beneath him. He thought he could get used to the way Bak was looking at him, all bright-eyed with wonder, as though Komui himself were a variable in a complicated chemical formula that he had never considered nor thought possible.

“We have greenhouses,” Bak admitted, turning his own head a little when Komui brushed scraped knuckles against his cheek. “Not much earth to till in a series of caves, I’m afraid. My grandmother was a herbalist.”

“Oh?” Komui said with interest, his face against Bak’s neck now. “Traditional medicine?”

“Poison,” Bak replied without inflection, turning Komui’s hand in his own and raising his eyebrows. “You have _callouses_ ,” he said, sounding both disbelieving and delighted as he pressed his face to Komui’s palm.

“Poison,” Komui repeated blandly, and shook his head. He curled his fingers against Bak’s cheek. “How did you know we were here?” he asked carefully. He wouldn’t have put it past the Order to still keep track of them, even after letting go of the leash.

“The osmanthus,” Bak said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. He seemed to have decided that he wasn’t done kissing Komui, and that in itself was rather distracting. “One of my family’s horticulturalists was thinking about getting a tree for the Moon Festival. If you were trying to hide, you weren’t doing a very good job of it.”

Komui knew what that meant. “You made your _staff_ look for us?” he demanded, pulling away long enough to stare.

“I like to manage my resources,” Bak told him, unremorseful. His grey eyes were sharp when they slid in Komui’s direction. “Though if you had just _waited_ like I had asked instead of dashing off like the hounds of hell were after you, maybe I wouldn’t have had to.”

“Bak-chan,” Komui began gently, and stopped. He didn’t know what to say. He had never considered leaving the Order with more than what he had come for in the first place; his sister.

 

* * *

 

Komui had always known how he intended to live out the rest of his days; that is to say, if he managed to make it out of the war alive. He’d leave England for sure, he had thought, go somewhere with far less rain, that wasn’t damp enough to make his hair curl. Take the Vatican’s pension fund, grab Lenalee, and get the hell out of dodge.

Nevermind that he had sold their family home and all their possessions nearly fifteen years prior just to fund his way through China to get to the Black Order in the first place. They’d figure out the rest on the way.

That was how they had wound up in Guilin. It was a small city, hardly big enough to be called a township really, surrounded by karst and little rivers. Lenalee thought it pretty and peaceful. Komui was just glad that they were nowhere near the coast. He had always hated the sea; the saltwater smell alone made his stomach turn.

They got a garden. There had been no gardens in the Order, not private ones anyway. Just hedges and rose bushes and otherwise unremarkable topiary. He wanted peaches and plum blossoms and azaleas. Their father had been an avid gardener, though Lenalee hardly remembered this. It might have been half the reason why she had looked at him with such alarm when she found him elbow deep in soil, as old Mr. Yin from next door talked him through transplanting saplings and seasonal blooms.

He spent a lot of his time outdoors after that, carefully tilling the earth. It was nostalgic in a way, reminding him of simpler times with their parents. Their mother was a chemist by trade, but herbalism had been one of her hobbies. Part of Komui wished he had paid more attention to her lessons when he had the chance, though the other part thought it was his just desserts, especially after the first few days, when he returned home with blisters all over his palms.

“Stop punishing yourself,” Lenalee had warned him, as she wrapped his hands in gauze and expressly forbid him from picking up so much as a spade for the next week or so. “I know that’s hard for you brother, but the nearest doctor is a town over and I’d rather not have to make the trip over something as silly as you collapsing from _gardening_ too hard.”

“Sorry,” Komui murmured, ducking his head sheepishly. “It’s been a while. Since I’ve handled anything other than chemicals and metals and Innocence that is.”

Lenalee pursed her lips at that, because it was definitely _not_ a promise to quit working so hard, but her hands were gentle when they covered his own. “I can help,” she told him. “Just tell me what to do.”

It was, Komui found out, remarkably similar to handing out a mission. Lenalee worked hard and listened carefully, though she had no qualms about slapping his hands away when he couldn’t put his thoughts into words and figured a demonstration was in order.

They had a perfectly picturesque (if not slightly disordered) array of flowering trees not a year later. Komui had considered taking a picture and making them into postcards. The Science Group still kept in touch of course (they were _family_ ), but whether they’d want to know the exact properties of these plants instead of just taking them at aesthetic value was better left unanswered.

By this stage Lenalee had decided that the lack of medical aid in the city was not on, and was considering taking on the task herself. Komui was a scientist mind you, not a doctor. The only thing he had ever learned about the human body was how easily it broke down when you injected the essence of God inside it.

And God, as it turned out, seemed to get a kick out of making Komui incredibly miserable and bewildered in turns.

He’d been in the garden again when it happened, a broad-brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes to keep off the beating sun. Lenalee had gone to the market to get their groceries for the week and no one had come down the path past their house since. That was when Bak Chang had turned up, red-faced and scowling like his own personal, avenging angel.

He had looked so out of place, so _foreign_ , for a town so far inland that had almost nothing to do with international trade like Shanghai, that Komui had thought he’d spent too much time in the sun and was going to get scolded by Lenalee for not taking breaks when he ought have.

 

* * *

 

“I hope you’re not going to apologize,” Bak said testily, bringing his thoughts back to the present. He looked as though his temper had spiked significantly the longer he had to wait for an explanation to come forth. “Because I _know_ you won’t mean it and I don’t want to hit you again.”

“Because I’m so handsome?” Komui quipped hopefully.

“Because this tan has improved your looks exponentially and I don’t want to spoil it by breaking your nose,” Bak corrected, trailing his fingers down Komui’s chest. “Your face and your brains are all you’ve got going for you.”

“I’m not the one who still looks like a school boy in his mid-thirties,” Komui pointed out and yelped when Bak’s wandering hand pinched his side.

“Don’t think this means I’m not mad at you,” Bak warned him. “Because I’m _furious_.”

“I kind of figured that when you started yelling and hit me in the face,” Komui admitted, but when he turned his head Bak had pushed himself up so he was sitting next to Komui instead of astride him, his face in his hand as though he were suffering a headache. “Bak-chan?”

“You lied to me,” Bak said, his voice muffled and so incredibly raw that Komui sat up also.

“I’ve lied about a lot of things,” Komui said quietly, and tried to reach for him, but Bak pushed him away. The tips of his ears were turning red.

“You said … I thought that you …” Bak muttered, trying to find the words and failing. “ _Why_?”

“Why what, Bak-chan?” Komui asked, knowing enough by now to just let this tirade run its course.

“Why spend every damn day parroting how much you loved me if you didn’t fucking _mean_ it?” Bak exclaimed, and looked up, his face now an angry, splotchy red.

Komui sat back. “I did mean it!” he said in alarm. “I _still_ mean it!”

“You _ran_!” Bak shouted, his temper finally exploding. He shoved him, and Komui was so startled that he fell back against the headboard, eyes wide. “Do I not merit a goodbye? A letter? Not even a fucking _note_?!”

“We _had_ to leave!” Komui said, trying to explain his reasoning. He knew he didn’t have any good excuses. It had been a ‘fight-or-flight’ instinct that had gotten them out of Europe as soon as the war had ended. “Get away from that entire mess, settle down somewhere first. I know where you live, I would have come to _you_!”

“And how was _I_ supposed to find _you_?” Bak demanded, wringing his hands as though he was this close to wrapping them around Komui’s neck, handsome tan or not. “Did you think I was just going to put my feet up and _hope_ you were going to come back?!”

Komui raised his eyebrows, his mouth dropping open a little. “Why would I not come back…?!”

“Because you _hate_ the Order!”

“I _do_ hate the Order,” Komui exclaimed, more than a little bewildered now, “and I’m telling you that’s _why_ we left! But that doesn’t have anything to do with how I feel about _you_!”

Bak stared at him. His face was so red by this stage that Komui thought his head was going to explode. 

“Are you _thick_ in the head?” he suddenly screamed, so incredibly fiercely that Komui reared back. “Has all this time in the sun scrambled what little brain cells you have left!? It has _everything_ to do with me!”

“Why do you always have to _yell_?” asked Komui, who now had a faint ringing in his right ear. “Bak-chan, _please_ the neighbours are going to come looking - ”

“The Order is all I fucking _have_!” Bak said, and then stopped so abruptly that Komui feared he was going to collapse on the spot. Then he seemed to wilt before his eyes, all the fight leaving him just as suddenly as it had appeared. Bak moved then, shifting to the edge of the bed, dropping his face in his hands.

“The Order is all I have,” Bak said again, much more quietly this time. “It’s my entire life. I don’t … I have never known anything else,” he whispered, seeming to hunch so deeply into himself that for a moment, Komui thought he looked like a little boy. “The war is over … so what? What am I supposed to do now?” 

There were angry tears in his eyes when he turned his head to glare at Komui.

“I have _nothing_ outside the Order…” he hissed, so full of _hurt_ , “… except _you_.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Komui murmured, rushing forward when it felt like his own heart was going to burst open, so incredibly grateful when Bak allowed him to fold him into his arms without a fight. “Oh, that’s not why I left, _xiao bao_. It wasn’t you, it was _never_ you. I _love_ you.”

“Then _never_ do that again,” Bak said gravely, his nails digging half-moon welts into Komui’s shoulder blades. He could feel hot tears dripping down his shoulder. 

Bak sniffed wetly. “You _asshole_.”

“I won’t,” Komui said with as much feeling as he could muster as he crushed Bak tight against him. He curled his fingers into his hair. “I’m done, _laogong_. No more running, I promise.” He paused, considering. “Unless you’re trying to poison me.”

Bak didn’t _laugh_ , but he coughed sharply and thumped Komui on the back with his fist, wiping his eyes with the heel of his palm. “… you won’t have _time_ to run away if I decide to poison you, you unrepentant jerk,” he muttered.

Komui kissed him, pressing their foreheads together. He ran his thumb across Bak’s cheeks, rubbing away the wetness there and just held him impossibly close. “I love you,” he said again.

Bak swallowed hard, his eyes searching Komui’s face. “I love you too,” he said at last, before hiding his face against Komui’s neck again.

They stayed like that a little while longer, just clinging to each other and breathing, until a thought occurred to Komui.

“Bak-chan,” he said quietly, pulling away slowly, because Bak looked, for all intents and purposes, as though he had fallen asleep in his arms.

“Hmm?”

“Where are you staying?”

“What kind of ridiculous question is that,” Bak asked, and settled back into curling around Komui like a small, disgruntled cat. “ _Here_ of course. With you.”

“Well I know _that_ ,” Komui replied, “I’d have bullied you into it regardless, but… you must have been staying somewhere before coming here right? This wasn’t an accidental visit and we don’t exactly live in the middle of town.”

Bak went rigid so quickly that Komui thought he might have turned to stone if that were at all possible. 

He let go and narrowed his eyes, because Bak was suddenly looking everywhere but at Komui’s face. “ _Bak-chan_ …?”

Bak cleared his throat and busied himself with rubbing his still reddened eyes. “I didn’t… you, see the thing is that …”

The front door slammed open, and he nearly jumped a foot in the air. Komui stared. Footsteps pattered down the hall.

“Brother?” Lenalee called out. She sounded like she was dropping her shoes as she ran. 

“Brother, there’s an entire train of retainers sitting at the bottom of the hill playing dice because their master had _urgent business_ to take care of, is it really alright to leave them there - ”

She opened his bedroom door and stopped dead. Her eyebrows had climbed to her hairline.

“Lenalee!” Komui exclaimed, because Bak looked ready to pass out all over again. He was suddenly grateful that at the worst, their shirts were unbuttoned, if not hopelessly rumpled. No one had lost their pants yet. His sister’s virtue was still intact.

“Mr. Bak!” Lenalee said instead, before Komui could forge on with an explanation. She sounded surprised, but not _shocked_. “I didn’t think - oh, but you’re _early_! I thought you wouldn’t get here before - ”

“ _Miss Lenalee_!” Bak suddenly shouted, just as Lenalee seemed to catch herself and slapped a hand over her own mouth, as though she had just given away a terrible secret. 

His voice had risen a few octaves, and he stood up so suddenly that Komui ended up falling off the bed. “Always a pleasure!”

“Oh, likewise!” Lenalee said brightly, in a similar high-pitched tone. Her smile suddenly seemed fixed on her face. “I’ve only just got back from the market, but would you like to join us for tea?” She gestured towards the kitchen.

“An excellent idea!” Bak yelped, buttoning his shirt and sidestepping Komui, who had made a grab for his ankle as he darted past. “I’ll help you!”

“Bak-chan…?” Komui gaped, pulling himself off the floor. “ _Lenalee_!? _Hey_!”

“Please put your shirt on properly, brother!” Lenalee scolded, though she seemed to hopping anxiously from foot to foot now. “I know we don’t get guests often, but _really_.”

“But I didn’t… _Guests_!? You mean, you - ”

“The tea will be ready in a few minutes!” Lenalee promised, and grabbed Bak’s wrist as he slid past her into the hall, suddenly looking supremely embarrassed for some reason. “I’ll tell you all about it then!”

They darted off. He could hear them _whispering_ frantically to each other. Komui thought his jaw was going to hit the floor.

“What is going _on_!?”

 

* * *

 

“You’ve been writing _letters_!?” Komui exclaimed. He looked between them accusingly. Bak was staring resolutely at the table, flushed all the way down to his chest. 

Lenalee looked like she was trying to hide behind the tea tray but her eyes were stern when she looked at him.

“That’s right,” she said firmly. Komui rounded on Bak.

“You’ve known where I was since _last autumn_ ,” he hissed, “and instead of contacting me you start writing letters to my _sister_? And you have the _gall_ to yell at me for _abandoning_ you?!” he finished angrily, aware that his voice was rising. Bak winced.

Komui knew that Bak had a flair for the dramatic, and he had always appreciated that; he was a bit of a showman himself. But _this_ …

“Calling me a liar is starting to sound a bit rich now isn’t it, Bak-chan?” he said coldly, tapping his fingers on the tabletop and grimacing. Bak looked away.

Then the tea tray came down hard on Komui’s head. 

“Lenalee!” Komui raised a hand to rub his forehead, looking betrayed, but she just frowned at him.

“Don’t be _mean_ , brother!” she told him as she withdrew her weapon. “Mr. Bak _couldn’t_ have known where you were last autumn by because I only contacted him in late spring _this year_.”

“ _You_?” Komui spluttered, gesturing wildly between them. “You mean he didn’t…? What do you mean, _you_ \- ”

“I want to become a doctor,” his incredible, no-nonsense sister said, as she sat back down and folded her hands together. “And to do that I need to be able to have the proper education. Mr. Bak has very generously provided me with a list of good universities and told me that I may speak to his family doctors if I wanted to get a better idea of what I was getting into, so I’ve been writing to them too.”

“ _University_?” Komui yelped. “When!?”

“I haven’t thought that far yet,” Lenalee admitted, looking a little thoughtful. She reached across the table for Komui’s hand and laced their fingers together.

“Brother…” she said softly, “I love this town and I love being here with _you_ , but you know I won’t learn anything if I just _stay_ here for the rest of my life either.”

“Just speak to Dr. Meng the next time we see him,” Komui muttered, well aware that he sounded like a sulking child, “He’s good with his patients and I’m sure he’d be more than willing to take on an apprentice. We could even move to Liuzhou if that’s what you wanted.”

Lenalee smiled. “That’s not going to work and you know it,” she said kindly.

Komui made a face. “I know.”

There was a hesitant tap at the window. A man in a plain changshan was standing next to the porch, looking at them anxiously.

Bak sighed. “Please excuse me a moment,” he said, getting up from his seat and going outside. The man immediately fell into step beside him, speaking quickly.

“If I’d known he was bringing an entire entourage I’d have followed you to the market,” Komui said somewhat sarcastically. “Then we could have had _everyone_ over for tea.”

Lenalee slapped his hand lightly. “Brother,” she admonished. “You _are_ happy to see him aren’t you?” she asked worriedly.

Komui exhaled heavily. “Of _course_ I’m happy to see him!”

“And you didn’t have any problem showing him just _how_ happy you were, did you?” Lenalee prodded. Komui’s cheeks pinked.

“We _didn’t_ \- ” he started to protest and stopped when he caught Lenalee’s eyes twinkling. “That’s not something I feel entirely comfortable discussing with my little sister, just so you know.”

Lenalee laughed.

“How on earth did you manage to get him all the way out here anyway?” he asked, raising his eyebrows when Lenalee shook her head and giggled.

“He asked after you, of course,” she said, “but he thought that you didn’t want to see him. So I told him that you were so bored you tried to dig a moat around the house and to please come over before you utterly ruined the landscape.”

“It wasn’t a _moat_!” Komui said indignantly. “It was supposed to be a fishpond!”

“I love you,” Lenalee said seriously, squeezing his hand, “You know that. But you’re a _scientist_ , brother, not a farmer, and I’ve watched you try to transplant an entire forest around us since we got here. You need something to put your mind to work or you’re going to go crazy.”

“And you think Bak-chan’s the answer to that?” Komui asked, genuinely curious.

“He _loves_ you,” Lenalee replied, with so much warmth that it sent a shiver down Komui’s spine, “but he’s a scientist too. I’m not sure whether he travelled halfway across the country to stop you or to see if your plan was so crazy it might actually _work_.”

Komui actually did laugh at that, both of them hunched over the dining table clutching each other’s hands and wheezing, only dissolving into more giggles when Bak turned from his spot near the plum tree in the corner of the garden to look back at the house with furrowed brows.

“You’re really okay with this?” Komui asked, when he finally got himself under control. Lenalee’s smile was a little sad now, and she folded her other hand over his so she was holding his hand between both of her own.

“You spent so many years making the Order into a _home_ so I would have somewhere I could be happy,” she whispered, “now, more than anything, I want _you_ to be happy.”

Komui covered her hands with his own. “If it’s possible to be any happier than this, I think I’ll explode,” he told her honestly, and smiled when she looked up at him with shining eyes.

The porch door slid open. Bak stood there, looking a little uncomfortable. The retainer that had come to fetch him was nowhere to be seen.

“I told them to move my luggage into the manor,” Bak said, when both Lenalee and Komui looked at him curiously. “It was taking up too much space on the road and the locals were getting suspicious. I’ll stop by tomorrow and get some of my things, if …” he cleared his throat, “… if you don’t mind my staying here, that is.”

Komui gave him a careful once-over. He turned to Lenalee. 

“He’s got a _manor_ ,” he told her solemnly, in the tone of one who honestly didn’t know why he was surprised by anything anymore. “And here I was seriously worried that he’d sent that guy off to buy over the whole hotel because they couldn’t get his luggage to fit.”

Bak went red. Lenalee slapped Komui on the arm.

“I’m going to put the groceries away,” she announced, letting go of his hand and getting to her feet. She wiggled her fingers at them in a shooing motion. 

“You two should … _talk_ ,” she finished after a suspicious pause that made Komui squint at her. She went over to where Bak was standing, clasping his hands in her own.

“Thank you for coming Mr. Bak,” she said sincerely, kissing his cheeks twice in the European style, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Bak went, if possible, even _redder_. Komui would have leapt out of his seat then and there if not for the fact that Lenalee knew him like the back of her hand, and shoved him back down into a sitting position before he could even rise.

“I’ll call you when I need help with dinner,” Lenalee told him, her hands like claws on his shoulders, but the lips she pressed to the top of his head when she passed by were soft. 

“Try not to break anything,” she added, and gave him one last knowing look before ducking out of the kitchen and disappearing down the hall.

Silence fell between them. Bak turned and went back out onto the porch before Komui could even open his mouth though, so he had no choice but to follow him.

Komui found him sitting in the tall grass, looking up admiringly at the sweet blossoms on the osmanthus trees. He sat down next to him.

“So,” Komui said softly, when Bak showed no signs of bolting. “Getting trees for the Moon Festival, huh?”

Bak snorted. “It wasn’t a _complete_ lie,” he said, pulling up bits of grass absentmindedly. “My clan really does get osmanthus imported from this region in order to make wine and sweet cakes for autumn.”

“ _Right_ ,” Komui chuckled a little and settled back on his hands. “Do you think they’d have known me even if they’d seen me?”

“Of course not,” Bak retorted, gesturing at Komui vaguely. “Look at you. The only thing that separates you from the real trees is that stupid grin on your face. You’re _entirely_ unremarkable.”

“Ah, _laogong_ ,” Komui sighed and pressed a hand against his chest. “You cut me to the quick. I don’t know how I ever lived without you.”

“So long as you don’t run off again, we’ll never have to find out,” Bak replied disgruntledly, looking away. Komui tilted his head and smiled.

“Are you saying you want to stay forever?” he crooned, leaning over into Bak’s personal space and hoping to get a rise out of him.

“ _Yes_ ,” Bak said, and turned on him with serious eyes.

Komui stared.

“…You’re _awful_ Bak-chan,” he said at last, when he finally managed to find his voice, butting his head against Bak’s shoulder and winding himself around him like an overly-affectionate squid. “You can’t say that kind of thing with a straight face, it’s not _fair_.”

Bak blustered at that, putting his arms around Komui in turn. “Well I don’t mean forever _here_ ,” he muttered, “I have to head back to Shanghai eventually, you know. I’ve got … Well, we still have our businesses to run, and there are trade negotiations to attend… pensions to file for former Asian Branch personnel, and Fou is going to have a _fit_ if I don’t tell her what I - ”

“Bak-chan,” Komui said again, muffled against his shoulder. “You’re ruining it.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“I want to stay with you forever too,” Komui said softly, and felt gratified when he felt Bak’s skin warm beneath him.

“ _Oh_ ,” Bak whispered, just as quietly, and kissed him, sending Komui sprawling backwards into the tall grass.

 

* * *

 

Back at the Order, Komui had never believed in mornings. He believed in them even less now, considering that there was no longer anyone hounding him to get up and get to work because they were _saving the world_.

That and coffee wasn’t a staple in a small town like this one. Coffee was a _luxury_ , and therefore expensive. Komui saw no point in getting up early at all if he had no coffee to help the process along.

He drifts, for the most part, in the mornings. Murmurs and grabs and complains when Bak wiggles out of his arms, leaving his side of the bed cold. Bak rises even earlier than _Lenalee_ does, though to what end Komui could never say. It seemed to be a lifelong habit.

Always a kiss on Komui’s forehead, always an ‘ _I love you_ ’ that he thinks he cannot hear, and if Komui is lucid enough he’ll drag Bak back to bed after his shower to snuffle at sweet-smelling hair and press his lips to hot, damp skin.

On weekdays Lenalee takes Bak to the market with her, and sometimes they bring back breakfast. 

She doesn’t dare leave him in the house alone if Komui’s sleeping; had confided in her brother once that Bak had nearly set an entire bottle of bleach alight while attempting to do _housework_ and she didn’t really want to come home only to find that the entire house had burned down.

Bak had never done a day’s housework in his _life_ , and while both siblings were grateful that he was willing to _learn_ , he still seemed incapable of doing so unsupervised.

There is another reason too, why they always go to the market as a pair and never alone, though Lenalee has never spoken of it to Komui’s face. She _wouldn’t_ , because she is unfailingly good and _kind_ , but that doesn’t mean that Komui doesn’t _know_.

It is surreal in a sense, to think about all the ways in which the Order had opened their eyes to the world around them, and not just to the fact that there had been a secret war in the shadows. 

They had met people from all over the world; people who were good and bad and not just generic faces that symbolised an entire race and all the _suffering_ they had caused over the past few decades.

People who had been perfectly pleasant to Komui and Lenalee in all the years they had stayed here now looked at them askance when Bak was with them. At his pale skin and blond hair and grey eyes; to them he is European, and that means he is nothing but trouble.

Then Bak had to open his mouth, because Bak _always_ had to open his mouth, and oh how quickly their resentment had turned to disgust.

Dirty blood. Half-breed. _Za zhong_. Oh, his mother must have been a prostitute. His father must have had no pride.

So when Lenalee comes home pink-cheeked and furious, Komui doesn’t ask. When she mentions that Bak’s retainers have started another fight with a shopkeeper in the middle of the street, he holds his tongue. 

He doesn’t weigh in on the matter because he _knows_ Bak would not want him to. _He_ comes home with his head held high, because he knows who and what he is, and he knows what he’s done, and _they_ don’t matter.

Of course, Bak had always been _za zhong_ , for as long as Komui had known him. There had been people in the Asian Branch who had whispered it too, though _never_ to any Chang’s face. It didn’t seem to matter as much, being called _za zhong_ in Shanghai, because there were hundreds of others in the port city who were called the same. 

That didn’t make it _right_ , Bak had said in one of his more vulnerable moments, but there was a sense of camaraderie in it all the same.

So Komui feigns deafness when Lenalee scolds him over a mysterious pit appearing on the main road that had taken out ten farmers, two shopkeepers, one ornery monk and all the tools of their trade, because he _knows_ she doesn’t mean it. 

He invites all of Bak’s retainers to dinner at least once a week, and smiles when they fret openly about eating in the same room as their young master, who is as spoiled as any prince (they tell Komui after the plum wine has loosened their tongues), but he is _theirs_ and that’s all that matters.

It’s not all bad though. He makes a motorized bicycle out of old tractor parts and an old frame for Mr. Yin next door, who visits Bak every day for medicinal herbs and regales them all with tales of his life in the army while his wife shakes her head. 

He also creates tiny golems for the twins Ju and Lan, whom Lenalee tutors in writing and arithmetic, because they thought Bak’s golden hair was beautiful. 

They tended to spend an inordinate amount of time after each lesson arguing over which one of them would get to marry him and had both kicked Komui in the shins when he had told them that Bak was _already_ married. The man himself did not confirm or deny this, but he _did_ look up from his workbench long enough to tell Komui that he deserved whatever bruising he got.

Bak, who contrary to his own insistence, never actually _tanned_ , but now actually had some colour on his cheeks. And _freckles_. That had been new and exciting. Komui had been _wild_ about the freckles.

He hadn’t even realized they were there until they had packed up and gone on a trip to Yangshuo at the end of the summer. They’d been standing on Moon Hill at the time, watching the sunset. 

It had of course been impossible _not_ to kiss Bak after the freckles had come to light, though Komui didn’t understand why Lenalee was so _gleeful_ about it until they were swamped by letters in the following months all expressing their congratulations.

Even Kanda had deigned to send a note on what looked like a tea-stained piece of note paper. It read thusly: _It’s about fucking time_.

Of course, it later transpired that Lenalee had used her golem to take a photograph of them when they weren’t looking. Bak had made a strange face when he found out, though he wouldn’t say _why_ no matter how much Komui wheedled him.

Komui drifts in the morning, not quite awake and yet not really asleep either. He dreams of freckles and marriage and _people_. Good people, ignorant people, and family. 

Of his sister, smiling and bright and warm, who has spent her whole life giving and now wants to give even _more_. He will support her as best as he can, the same as he has always done; at least they have each other. 

Of Bak, standing in the dappled shade of a peach tree, grinning and content to find there _is_ such a thing as life outside the Order, even if it’s not exactly how he imagined it. He will be returning to Shanghai before winter sets in, he had said, one evening over dinner. _Come with me_ is what he _doesn’t_ say, though Komui knows that is what he meant.

Komui gets out bed when the sun is high and bright in the sky, and laughter is drifting out from the kitchen. How many years at the Order had he spent dreaming up such a scenario? How long had he imagined being able to have breakfast with his sister in their own home, and not in a cafeteria with hundreds of other people?

“Brother!” Lenalee exclaimed, when he finally wanders into the kitchen. She sets a mug down on the table and shakes her head at him. “You didn’t even comb your hair!” she tuts, but she holds her hand out to guide him to his seat all the same. 

He takes it gratefully. Lenalee had learned her lesson fairly early on that it was better this way, less Komui trip over nothing and end up face first on the floor.

He sits. There are pork buns and congee and youtiao on the table, but he can’t take his eyes off the mug that’s placed in front of him. 

“Is that _coffee_?” he asked, in a voice that is still raspy with sleep and wishes he had cleared his throat first. He sounds like an _addict_.

Lenalee fairly beamed at him. “ _Surprise_!” she told him giddily.

“What can I say,” Bak sighed, sliding open the porch door with his foot and hefting the groceries over the threshold. “The sight of you tottering around the house like a ghost in the mornings was really starting to get to me.”

Komui dragged his mug closer and took a sniff. “They don’t sell Blue Mountain coffee at the general store,” he said accusingly.

“Oh, we didn’t go to the store,” Lenalee said, still smiling behind her steepled fingers. “We stopped by the manor on the way home and one of Mr. Bak’s retainers dug it out of his luggage.”

“You had my coffee _this whole time_!?” Komui exclaimed, suddenly very awake and very aghast.

“If you don’t want it,” Bak said, leaning over the table and looking Komui dead in the eye, “I’ll take it back.”

Komui caged his fingers protectively around his mug. “ _Don’t you dare_.”

“That’s what I thought,” Bak replied, pushing wayward curls aside to press his lips to Komui’s forehead, the same way he always did first thing in the morning. “But don’t think this means you get out of eating breakfast.”

Komui takes a sip before he can change his mind. It is warm and mild and tastes of home. He sighs deeply and closes his eyes. “I should have married you years ago.”

When he opens them, he sees both Bak and Lenalee staring at him.

“ _Please_ tell me you weren’t addressing your coffee,” Bak says at last, sounding mildly concerned, and Lenalee ducks her head over her teacup, trying not to giggle.

Komui glances between them and is suddenly, overwhelmingly, aware of how much he would give up to spend every morning for the rest of his life like this.

He shakes his head and takes another sip of his coffee. “How was the market today?” he asks instead, and settles back to listen as Lenalee starts recounting the highlights of their trip.

He glances at Bak, who has his chin propped in his hand and is still looking at Komui out of the corner of his eye. “ _Idiot_ ,” he mouths, in the sort of tone that other people would say _I love you_.

Komui shrugs, and finds himself smiling.

He’s _home_. 

**END.**


	2. (Post-War PWP: Freckles)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A PWP set during the same timeline, wherein Bak spends so much time in the sun he starts to freckle and Komui finds it _adorable_.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to figure out how to get rid of these unsightly blemishes,” Bak replied flatly, still squinting into Lenalee’s hand mirror and occasionally pulling a bit of skin on his face taut to scowl at it.

“You mean your freckles?” Komui asked curiously, sitting down next to him. “I told you that you weren’t going to tan…”

“I tan!” Bak snapped, turning his head this way and that as he looked at his reflection, his expression becoming more and more thunderous. “Usually! Look at this!” he exclaimed, pulling his shirtsleeve up and shoving his arm into Komui’s face. “They’re everywhere! It’s like a plague!”

“I think they’re cute,” Komui offered, though this seemed to be the wrong thing to say. Bak made a despairing noise, and dropped his face in his hand.

“How can I ever show my face in public again?” he muttered darkly. “My flawless skin is _ruined_!”

Komui snorted and hastily tried to turn it into a cough.

“Hey now,” he murmured, putting his arm around Bak and drawing him closer when it looked like he was one step away from turning into a small ball of pure rage. “It’s not as bad as all that. In fact you could say it’s an improvement!”

Bak lifted his face from his hand and glared at him. He opened his mouth furiously, no doubt gearing up to lecture Komui until he relented, so he grabbed Bak’s hand instead and twined his fingers around it.

“Really,” he said earnestly, cutting Bak off before he could launch into full tirade mode, “I think your freckles are great. In fact it’s taking an enormous effort on my part not to kiss every single one of them.”

Bak paused at that. He closed his mouth and stared, eyes searching Komui’s face for what he no doubt thought was the punchline of a joke. “Really?” he said at last, looking uncertain.

“ _Really_ ,” Komui promised, sifting his hand through fine blond hair and cupping the side of Bak’s face. “Come here,” he said, laying down on the bed and pulling Bak with him.

“Look at you,” he whispered reverently, kissing the bridge of Bak’s nose and all over his cheeks. “You’re beautiful, it’s driving me crazy.”

“You’re terrible,” Bak murmured back, cheeks pink and his fingers tight in dark hair as Komui kissed down his neck.

“They’re everywhere!” Komui said delightedly, unbuttoning Bak’s shirt and pressing his mouth to the light dusting of freckles on his chest. Bak made a breathless noise above him.

“Bak-chan, don’t tell me you were wandering around the garden with your shirt off?”

“You’re not the boss of me,” Bak replied petulantly, “I’ll do my morning exercises without a shirt if I want t – _nnh_!” he hissed, fingernails pressing down against Komui’s scalp as a tongue laved gently over his nipple.

“Ah, I want to rub my face all over you,” Komui sighed, going lower now and stroking his thumb fondly against Bak’s stomach. “Why do you always do this, Bak-chan?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bak said sharply. He pulled at Komui’s hair. “Come _here_. If you’re going to say sweet things about these ugly marks I’d rather you say them to my face.”

Komui sat up, rubbing the back of his head when Bak released him and turned on his side to scowl into the sheets. “They’re not _ugly_ ,” he said, offended, and scooted back up so they were lying nose to nose.

“They’re _not_ ,” he said firmly when Bak squinted at him.

“I don’t want you down there,” he said at last, just as Komui thought he was going to roll off the bed and find somewhere to sulk about his freckles in peace. His fingers brushed against Komui’s chin. “I want you like this.”

 _Oh_.

“Like this?” Komui asked, leaning in close so their noses slid together. He cupped his hand around Bak’s flushed, freckled cheek and stroked it.

Bak closed his eyes. His hand went around Komui’s back to clutch at his shirt. “Yes,” he murmured, “Exactly like this.”

Komui kissed him and made a small noise of pleasure when Bak curled his arms around his head and kissed back, as though he couldn’t be close enough. He pulled away occasionally to kiss his face and down his neck, murmuring sweet nothings against Bak’s reddened ear and running his hand across warm, freckled skin.

“You have the most attractive freckles in the _world_ ,” Komui said gently, fingers dancing over the soft curls trailing down from Bak’s abdomen and over the waistband of his pants. He pressed his mouth to the soft skin under Bak’s ear. “You’ve ruined me for anyone else.”

“ _Hngh_ ,” Bak murmured, arching his back and pressing his forehead to Komui’s cheek as a hand slid under fabric and started fondling his cock.

“I want to watch you the next time you do your forms in the garden,” Komui whispered against his neck as he stroked Bak to hardness. The late-afternoon sun was pouring through the window, making his hair shine gold in the light.

“You, _ah_ … don’t even get out of bed before 10,” Bak sighed, curling tight around him and shifting his hips against Komui’s hand.

“Push me onto the floor then,” Komui replied as he circled his thumb over the wet head so that Bak groaned.

“You’re going to regret this,” he said, pushing his fingers through Komui’s hair and bringing him closer to kiss again. Komui could feel the trembling against his lips as Bak’s toes curled in the sheets, shifting his legs as though to find purchase in them.

“You’re going to regret, _hnn_ … ever saying that to me tomorrow.”

“Probably,” Komui agreed easily, ducking his head to lick a wet stripe from clavicle to chin as he started to stroke faster. Bak made a noise somewhere between pleasure and frustration.

“But then I’ll remember I get to see you without your shirt on – without either of us having to get naked in bed first,” he added conspiratorially, kissing the crooked tilt of Bak’s lips. “That’s going to be _wonderful_.”

“You’d better not laugh,” Bak warned him, canting his hips upwards now on every stroke and curling his fist tight into Komui’s shirt. Komui grinned and pressed his lips to his freckled cheek.

“You’d better not bend over,” he shot back, and was rewarded when Bak jolted under him, startled into laughing, though he covered his mouth almost as soon as he did, looking at Komui accusingly. The impact of his glare was rather ruined by the red stain on his face and the glazed look in his eyes though.

Komui beamed at him.

“Made you laugh,” He said happily, leaning over to kiss him all over again, “Ah, Bak-chan, I love your laugh…”

“You’re so _embarrassing_ ,” Bak hissed, scrunching his nose up and pressing his lips together as Komui started stroking him faster. “I’m … ah, god … stop _doing_  that I’m trying to be mad at you.”

Komui nosed his ear. “I want you to fuck me,” he confessed, nuzzling Bak’s face.

“ _Komui_ ,” Bak groaned at that, pressing his face against his shoulder and clawing stripes down his back with his nails.

“Want to see you and those pretty freckles on top of me … that’ll be so hot … _please_ , Bak-chan~”

“ _Stop_ ,” Bak exclaimed, thumping Komui on the back with his fist and pressing his face harder against his neck. “Stop, just stop. You’re going to make me come. Hurry up and take those off,” he demanded, pushing at Komui’s leg with his foot as though that would make his pants come off faster.

“You’re awful,” he said later, after nearly upending Komui onto the floor in his desperation to get him naked faster and with only the most basic of preparation at that, because he kept thrusting his cock against Bak’s and chanting ‘come on, come _on_ ’ until he’d given up being careful and just pushed inside.

“I can’t believe you,” Bak went on, red all the way to his ears as he gripped Komui’s hips tight in his hands and rolled his hips forward. “Stop making that _face_.”

“What face?” Komui sighed, running his hands up and down Bak’s flushed, freckled chest and looking up at him adoringly. He arched on his cock, biting his lower lip. “Mmm, Bak-chan that’s so _good_. Keep going.”

“I’d bend you in half if I didn’t know you’d snap like a twig,” Bak muttered, leaning forward and ducking his head as he drove into him.

He brushed his fingers against Komui’s cock. “Sorry. Does it hurt?”

Komui smiled encouragingly, taking Bak’s hand and pressing lips to his knuckles. “You’re _wonderful_ ,” he said, so raw and affectionate that Bak turned even redder, the motion of his hips stuttering slightly.

“Sit up,” Bak told him, curling his fingers tight around Komui’s own and pulling him forward. “Just … in my lap where I can hold you … please.”

It was a position that probably would have looked funny to an outsider, seeing Bak’s small form encaged between Komui’s long gangly limbs, but it was intimate and warm, and when Komui complied and he felt Bak curl his arms around his waist and press his cheek against his heart he always decided that it was worth it.

He hummed to himself, shifting back down onto Bak’s cock and pressing their foreheads together, his own arousal slicking wet trails up and down Bak’s stomach with every thrust. “Bak-chan…” he murmured, kissing the furrow between his brows when Bak squeezed his eyes shut. “ _Harder_.”

Fingernails dug sharply into his hips. Komui groaned when Bak kissed his neck desperately, tilting his head back as he freed one hand to stroke insistently at Komui’s cock while the other squeezed his ass.

“ _Hngh_ ,” he whimpered, curling himself tight around Bak as he did as he was bid, each thrust upwards making Komui bounce a little in his lap. “Ah, _god_ you’re amazing~”

“Stop … _saying_ that,” Bak hissed, sinking teeth sharply into the space between Komui’s neck and shoulder. “I don’t need a pep talk – _mmph_!” he suddenly exclaimed in surprise when Komui cupped his face between his hands and kissed him hard on the mouth.

“You’re wonderful,” he said insistently, only pulling away long enough for Bak to gasp for air before he kissed him again. “You’re _incredible_. I love your face,” he went on, rocking his hips against the circle of Bak’s fist around his cock as he rode him, “Love your hands and feet and hips and _thighs_ ,” he added breathlessly, as Bak shook his head and mouthed ‘ _Stop_ ’ against his shoulder.

Komui didn’t. “I love your cock,” he groaned, bearing down, and Bak made a desperate noise in reply, shuddering when Komui kissed his face and ran his thumbs over his jawline.

“I love your mind,” he said happily, lips to Bak’s forehead now, before pulling back and looking at the frantic, furious expression in his dark eyes and smiling brilliantly. “I love _you_ ,” he said earnestly, “so why wouldn’t I love your freckles too?”

It was like watching a mountain collapse in upon itself, the way Bak’s expression crumpled into something raw and open and wondering as he came with his face buried against Komui’s chest, trembling as he stroked him almost viciously now, and making an angry little sound when Komui hummed with pleasure and spent hot and thick against his chest.

“Get off,” Bak muttered, tipping over sideways to lie on his side with Komui still wrapped around him. Komui said nothing to that, but he brushed his thumb under Bak’s eyes and the wetness on his cheeks. “Stop that, it’s nothing. It’s just sweat.”

“I know,” Komui told him, feeling gratified when he leaned in to kiss him some more and Bak didn’t push him away.

“You’re horrible,” he said without feeling, and Komui laughed a little at that.

“One of us has to be a realist,” he said gently, stroking Bak’s face. Bak’s hand curled around his own. “That’s my job isn’t it, to give it to you straight?”

“Hmph,” Bak sniffed wetly, holding his hand tighter, “you’re about as straight as a wire spring.”

“ _Ha_!” Komui grinned, pulling him closer, “there’s that biting wit.” He kissed him on the nose.

“It’s really okay?” Bak said at last, glancing up at him suspiciously.

“It’s really okay,” Komui promised. “In fact I’ll be very cross with you if I wake up tomorrow morning and find you’ve covered them with Lenalee’s makeup.”

Bak flushed brilliantly at that. “I would _never_!” he exclaimed, sounding so defensive that it left no doubt in Komui’s mind that that was what he had planned to do all along.

“Then we’re okay,” he said again, and smiled when Bak scowled but surged forward to hug him so tight that Komui couldn't help but smile, even though it felt like his ribs would crack.

In fact he couldn’t _stop_ smiling after that, especially when Lenalee paused over her dinner that evening and told Bak that he looked much healthier after all that time in the sun, and Bak had fumbled with his cup so incredibly that he’d nearly dropped it on the floor.

Nor did he stop smiling the next day either, watching Bak get dressed and, while looking at himself in the mirror, touch his face and grin in a wobbly sort of way as though he were keeping some wonderful secret.

So when Bak’s retainers came by that morning to report on their holdings in the region for the week, he couldn’t say whether they were more concerned that Komui was grinning like a maniac for no apparent reason, or that their young master had been in the sun so long like a commoner.

He did find one hiding behind the porch though, with their face in their hands complaining to one of their fellows that freckles were _adorable_ on the young master and that they wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye without smiling, and so Komui chalked it up to a success.

They would probably fade over time he realized, and they would definitely disappear altogether once Bak returned to Shanghai and returned to his family’s estate, but for now he thought, lying in the long grass under the osmanthus trees and likening Bak’s freckles to the stars in the sky while he blushed and blundered and pushed Komui’s grinning face away from his person, he was starting to love all his ‘blemishes’ as much as Komui loved them, and that was more than enough.

**END.**


End file.
